The goal was to make it from start to finish without having to step aside, something Josh Richardson did not have the chance to do during his first two NBA seasons.

Instead, Richardson finds himself dealing with a sore left foot that has gotten progressively worse since injuring it during Saturday's victory over the Washington Wizards at AmericanAirlines Arena, an injury that kept him out of Wednesday night's game against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center.

Through Monday's victory over the Portland Trail Blazers at the start of this three-game trip, Richardson had been the lone Miami Heat player to appear in every game this season.

"I've been thinking about that," Richardson said of making it through all 82 games, after being limited to 52 and 53 his first two seasons. "It is what it is. There's more seasons to play all 82. I'm still going to try to play as many as possible."

Entering Wednesday's play, only 14 players had started in each of their teams' games this season, with that list now down to 13.

"It's a tough league, man," he said. "There's a lot of games. We go out there and guys put everything on the line every night. Playing so hard for so long, it's hard to be able to sustain it."Richardson said he attempted to initially play through the discomfort before consulting with coach Erik Spoelstra during the loss to the Blazers.

"Happened in the Washington game, I'm not really sure exactly how," he said. "The last few days it's been real sore. I tried to push through it Portland. It just didn't feel great. I just kind of told Spo to sit me a little bit at the end."

The treatment cycle has since increased.

"Going in," he said. "I thought I could play through it. I did a lot of treatment to try and get it better, but once I got moving it still kind of hurt a little bit. I thought it would loosen up. It just never loosened up."Richardson, the No. 40 pick out of Tennessee in 2015, said he had no issue rolling out nightly while other teammates were sidelined.

"It feels normal to play every night. It's all good," he said. "Before I got to the NBA I never played 80 games in one year, anyway. There's time [to get to 82]."

Spoelstra said there has come to be an expectation of consistency from Richardson.

"J-Rich has been significantly more healthy than he was last year, when he missed all that time," he said. "But he was making these strides even before last season. Coming off of last year's offseason, he was really improved and then at the end of the year finished at such a high note. This is the natural progression, third year, playing all these games."

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Erik Spoelstra on the Heat's zone defense.

Erik Spoelstra on the Heat's zone defense.

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Erik Spoelstra on the Heat's zone defense.

Erik Spoelstra on the Heat's zone defense.

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Dwyane Wade on Dion Waiters.

Dwyane Wade on Dion Waiters.

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Miami Heat guard Tyler Johnson on bringing the team's mentality on the road back home to AmericanAirlines Arena.

Miami Heat guard Tyler Johnson on bringing the team's mentality on the road back home to AmericanAirlines Arena.